On Saturday, the Election Commission declared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the winner in the Tripura assembly elections and since then the big win against Left Front in Tripura is attributed to various reasons. Among all, the biggest the promise made by the BJP to implement 7th Pay Commission for its state government employees as soon as the state comes to power. State government employees in Tripura continue to draw salaries on the basis of the Fourth Pay Commission. This is in contrast to Central government employees who are now getting salaries on the basis of 7th Pay Commission recommendations.

The BJP, during its campaign, repeatedly brought up the issue of implementation of 7th Pay Commission and promised to take care of government employees in every aspect.

The party manifesto for Tripura, released by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, listed implementation of 7th Pay Commission recommendations in the state if the party is voted to power.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, during their election rallies in Tripura, promised implementation of 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations in the state.

In June last year, the Manik Sarkar government had hiked the salaries of government employees by nearly 20 per cent but the BJP and Trinamool Congress had called it just an “eyewash”.

Around 2.5 lakh state government employees are there in Tripura, and analysts believe that majority of them voted in favour of the BJP.

For Tripura where there is a highest unemployment rate, the promise of a huge jump in salaries for government employees seems to have worked for the BJP.

In Tripura, government employees could get nearly twice their current salary once the recommendations made the 7th Pay Commission is implemented by the state government.

With the BJP set to form the next government in Tripura in alliance with IPFT, state government employees would hope for a substantial rise in their salaries based on the implementation of 7th Pay Commission recommendations.